Write ins a formality, some already winners

Election Day isn’t until Nov. 6, but County Commission candidate Tim Ryan is a sure winner — so much so that he’s already hired his staff, met with county department heads and tackled, in small way, a vexing problem that infuriates Broward’s drivers.

He’s is among 11 Broward and Palm Beach County office-seekers — from county commission candidates to contenders for the state Legislature and Congress — who are virtually guaranteed victories because their opponents are either unknown no-party hopefuls with little money or nearly invisible write-in candidates.

Ryan is a former state representative from Dania Beach who won a three-way Aug. 14 County Commission primary with 40 percent of the vote. He now faces two write-in candidates in his bid to take over the commission seat currently occupied by John Rodstrom, who is leaving office because of term limits.

No write-in candidate has ever won office in Florida. Their names don’t even appear on the ballot.

Some sure winners face named opponents on the ballot. U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, for example, faces no party affiliation candidates Cesar Henao and W. Michael “Mike” Trout in his bid for re-election in a northwestern Broward/southwestern Palm Beach County district.

Democrats make up 47 percent of the 21st Congressional District's registered voters. Independent or no-party-affiliation voters make up 27 percent and 26 percent are Republicans.

It takes name recognition, political organization and money to run effective campaigns — things candidates like Henao and Trout don’t have.

The same disadvantages confront the challengers to U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Miami Republican whose district includes part of southwest Broward, and U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Miramar Democrat whose district extends into Palm Beach County.

Like Deutch, their districts are so overwhelmingly aligned with either the Democrats or the Republicans that the other major party didn't even bother to run candidates.

Activists involved in Broward and Palm Beach county politics for decades say they can’t remember a no-party/independent candidate winning a partisan election.

In Ryan’s case, the write-in candidates served their purpose: closing the primary so that only Democrats could vote. Without any write-ins, Republicans and no party affiliation/independent voters could have participated in the primary — something that might have helped Rodstrom’s wife, Charlotte, who wanted to succeed her husband but lost to Ryan. The Rodstroms have long enjoyed support from Republicans.

Even though Ryan is sure to win, he’s technically a candidate on Nov. 6, which means he’s been allowed to continue raising campaign money. Most of the $70,000 he’s taken in since the primary is going to repay the $85,000 he lent his campaign.

Ryan said he’s also been meeting with county department heads to prepare for taking office on Nov. 20. “I wanted to understand everything from the traffic engineering to the wastewater plants to the environmental programs, transit.”

One of the agencies he’s met with is traffic engineering, which is responsible for the unsynched traffic lights that agitate so many motorists. The soon-to-be-commissioner said the problem is better than it used to be — but said he did report one out-of-sync signal on Stirling Road. It was fixed, he said.

State Rep. Jeff Clemens, who faces only a write-in candidate in his bid to become a state senator from Palm Beach County, is preparing his office. The House of Representatives has already picked up the furniture and computers from the office in Lake Worth, but Clemens plans to keep the space as his Senate office.

He’s already getting bids from contractors to move a wall to accommodate the extra staffer he’ll get as a senator. Once that work is done, he knows what color will go on the office wall: deep blue. And he’ll paint it himself.

FALL RIVER, Mass. — In the days leading up to his death, Odin Lloyd and former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez corresponded through text messages about meeting, according to testimony given in court Tuesday.

The Republican-controlled Congress admitted defeat and sent legislation to President Barack Obama on Tuesday that funds the Department of Homeland Security without the immigration-related concessions they demanded for months.